Cavite Mutiny, (Jan. 20, 1872), brief uprising of 200 Filipino troops and workers at the Cavite arsenal, which became the excuse for Spanish repression of the embryonic Philippine nationalist movement. Ironically, the harsh reaction of the Spanish authorities served ultimately to promote the nationalist cause.

The mutiny was quickly crushed, but the Spanish regime under the reactionary governor Rafael de Izquierdo magnified the incident and used it as an excuse to clamp down on those Filipinos who had been calling for governmental reform. A number of Filipino intellectuals were seized and accused of complicity with the mutineers. After a brief trial, three priests—José Burgos, Jacinto Zamora, and Mariano Gómez—were publicly executed. The three subsequently became martyrs to the cause of Philippine independence.

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...Opposition before 1872 was primarily confined to the Filipino clergy, who resented the Spanish monopoly of power within the Roman Catholic church in the islands. In that year the abortive Cavite Mutiny, a brief uprising against the Spanish, served as an excuse for renewed Spanish repression. The martyrdom of three Filipino priests—José Burgos, Mariano Gómez, and...